


Quietus

by superkali



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Death, Ghost!AU, Multi, Try, because they don't really.. die, but you know, i mean they're ghosts so they do and i am going to, not to go into like super detail of their deaths, so I am not going to tag major character death, super hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-26
Updated: 2015-01-27
Packaged: 2018-03-09 04:08:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3235697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superkali/pseuds/superkali
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Geoff Ramsey is a medium and comes into contact with all sorts of spirits seeking his help or even his friendships. He was given this gift to help ghosts who need it but more often than not they are helping him. </p>
<p>qui·e·tus<br/>noun<br/>death or something that causes death, regarded as a release from life.<br/>archaic<br/>something that has a calming or soothing effect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This the prologue to the story Quietus. This prologue is going to follow all of the main characters in the story, for everyone other than Geoff, it is the moments before they're all killed.

In the beginning it was easy. It started with someone he knew very well, standing in the doorway of his childhood room. Soft smile on her face with a finger over her mouth. She mumbled some words that he couldn’t quite catch in his sleepy brain. She left without another word, eyes closing as she did so. The next night she was closer to him, standing in the middle of the room. His sleepy eyes took a while to open but when they did he realized she was already mid-sentence.

“-You’re different boy. Don’t let them take that from you…No matter how hard it gets.” 

After that, it never stopped. Day in and day out Geoff was visited by people…spirits. Ghosts who walked in and out of his life, always asking questions, always needing something he just didn’t have. He was cursed with sleepless nights, senses always intruded with endless array of horrible things. It was especially hard to have a ghost visit him during the days. 

Luckily today was a hot summer day in Alabama and instead of sitting in a lame school desk he was sitting in the shade under a large tree in his backyard. His eyes were trained on the bird that kept bouncing and cooing around him trying to steal his sandwich crumbs. Before he could react to it, the smell of blood overpowered him, his body so badly wanted to retch but he wouldn’t allow it too. He looked around but no one was coming into view. At this point in Geoff’s life he was used to the cold chill, the odd presence even normal people felt, but he would never get used to the smells, they always churned his stomach for days. His eyes fell back to the spot the bird had been, but it was gone, a pile of feathers left behind. He went to reach for them but a hand beat him to it. The color was drained from the flesh, he could almost see through the bony fingers, if he tried hard enough. 

“I need your help.” 

The sound assaulted Geoff’s ears, he grimaced looking up at the source of the wheezy voice. 

The spirits face was slashed open, a nasty cut diagonally along it. Blood had been caked around the cut, making his face appear black and dirty. The ghost’s right eye was bulging, hanging nearly out of the socket. His teeth were showing through a rather nasty part of the cut along his mouth. They were brown with blood and falling apart from years of death. He tried his best to keep a straight face, but the smell alone was making him tremble. His chest was heaving. 

“I can’t help you… I- I’m so sorry.” 

“I was told you could help me.” The man was getting louder. 

Geoff backed into the tree a little more, shaking his head roughly. 

“I can’t so just… move along.” 

“Why can’t you? Is it because I look like this, I’ve been dead along time kid, just fucking-“ 

He stood up abruptly and began to walk away from the ghost, leaving behind his lunch and books. Geoff walked fast and with a purpose. When he burst through the back doors of the house he almost immediately ran into his older sister. She looked at him strange and turned her nose up. When he looked behind himself there was no one following him. 

\--

“Yeah okay- I- Alright! I heard ya’ the first time Ma!” 

“Michael Vincent Jones, I swear to the high heavens above if you get than tone with me one more tim-“

“Ma, please, just stop. I love you. I’ll see you when you get home from your date and…my room will be clean.” 

“Boy…” He accent shook. “I love you too.”

He laughed as he hung up the phone, setting it aside and automatically picking up his xbox controller and unpausing his game. He was in the middle of the hardest achievement he’d ever tried to get. It was killing him. It made him so goddamn angry. Game over after game over haunted him, he screamed and slammed his poor controller into the bed in front of him countless times. His hands shook as he tried his best not to turn the shitty game off. 

Michael eventually stood up, his voice was nearly hoarse, checking the time as he did so. He couldn’t believe how late it had gotten but he didn’t care. He stayed up all hours of the night in the summers, not to mention his mother wouldn’t be home anytime soon. No matter the hollow threats she made of throwing out all of his belongings if he didn’t clean his ‘disastrous and disgusting’ room. It was also very likely she would be stumbling home blistered anyways, because she didn’t like the guy she was going out with tonight, much like every other guy she went out with. 

He let out a long yawn and stuck his head out his open window the breeze cooling off his worked up sweat. He smirked to himself before climbing down the steps to retrieve some water. Bare feet padding along the ugly linoleum of their kitchen. His eyes automatically went to the bay window, the light on the street was flickering and beneath it were four kids, about his age, sitting in the street. It wasn’t uncommon on a summer night, to have children messing around. Woods surrounded the old house and often times there were children, making fools out of themselves, found there. But this was a little different. They were just sitting there, lighting a pile of dry leaves on fire. It would catch and then immediately be burnt out by the wind. Michael had stopped to watch, they seemed odd and he’d never seen them before. 

After a couple more tries the leave caught up and each of them cracked a smile, but not before looking Michael’s way. He wasn’t sure if they could see him but it sure seemed like it. They looked into the cottage house as if they knew exactly what they were looking for. A chill broke out over his skin. He finally gained enough energy to move and grab a water from the fridge. 

When he looked back out the window the children were gone. 

\--

There were shaking fingers running along his body. Words, that just refused to make sense to his scrambled brain, whispered to him in the dark. The air was thick, searing hot against his bare back. There was something about finger nails trailing down the dip of his muscles that turned his stomach in just the right ways. Something about how sweet it felt to have lips pressed against his neck, sweet nothings promised there. 

It didn’t last long however, the feeling of a gun pressed hard against his hipbone, was ever present and bothersome.

The metal felt heavy in his hand hours ago when he was loading it and strapping it in, making the vow to use it tonight. Making sure to tell himself of the payout, about the feeling of adrenaline he was chasing for so long. The gun had a grip over him even when he convinced himself that he’d done this before. 

But he hadn’t, he’d never put a bullet in someone. He’d never watched the life slowly fade from someone’s eyes as they lay in a pool of their own blood. Ryan Haywood had never murdered anyone. And if you would have asked him a year earlier if that’s where he would have found himself now, pacing the dingy bathroom of some underground bar waiting for a target, he would have laughed. He would have shook his head and went back to pressing his nose into a book. 

Ryan would have no idea months later he would be stealing from gangs and trading drugs for money. He never thought himself to be that kind of man, but once you get a taste of crime filled adrenaline it never really goes away. At least, that’s what he’s been told. He was also told that this would be easy, at first your hands would shake waiting for the thrill and then it was smooth sailing from there. Your body would go into auto-pilot and know what to do next to survive. 

But survival didn’t come so easy to the girl who hung off of him, drunk, all night. She was little with sweet green eyes that never left him. She had dark skin and soft lips. She knew all the right words to say and didn’t have a care in the world. At the time he hadn’t wanted to know the reason these people were hunting her down with intentions to kill her, but now it plagued his mind. She was so delicate. Even as she was pressing him into her bed with full force, even as she bit a mark into his neck. 

Finally a voice broke through his uncomfortable fog, her voice whining his name reverberated through his bones. He hadn’t realized that his fingers were pressing against the gun, his body went flushed and he dropped it on the floor. It clanked a sickening noise but she didn’t seem to notice. 

\--

“Your dad didn’t mean it… you know that right? He didn’t mean it like that.” 

“I’m sure…” 

Ray didn’t look at his mother but he knew that look, he knew the way her eyes drooped a little more tired than they’d been before. The way her lips turned down, with worry over him, over everything. Everything fell on her shoulders. She was constantly the war coordinator, constantly the bug killer, the sweet talker, bed time story teller. And for that he thanked her, but he couldn’t stand when she looked at him like this. Couldn’t stand to see the sadness behind her, always looming over them.  
When his eyes finally did look up at his mother, she had a crooked smile and was holding keys up to his face. 

“Ice cream will make you feel better right?” 

He laughed, well almost, it came out more like a chocked sob. He hadn’t realized he was crying. She didn’t say a word about it thought, which he was grateful for. She just took his hand in hers and pulled him out of the house. 

They were in the car for exactly three minutes before she was singing, at the top of her lungs, some song she barely knew the words to. But it didn’t deter her, if anything it made the experience that much better, she was making up words as she went along. Ray was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe, tears collecting at the corners of his eyes. He wanted to catch his breath but it was too hard, she wouldn’t stop, he couldn’t get his phone out of his pocket to record this. His friends would die to see this. They always loved his mother. She was easy going, and knew just how to take care of them all. Ray could argue that this was one of the best moments he had with his mother, but there were plenty of others to combat that. 

In the millisecond after the song ended there was an ear spilling noise that Ray just couldn’t find the source of. He hunched over, eyes closing in defense. 

\--

The house was so quiet he could hear a pin prick, it was making him anxious. There was nothing left for him to do. Everything was cleaned, there wasn’t a trinket out of place, or a dish that wasn’t spotless. Only one thing out of place, and that was him. He was sitting on the floral sofa, his wild hair tamed. His feet wouldn’t stop shuffling, wouldn’t stop pattering on the floor. He couldn’t seem to catch his breath. His chest was constricting so hard his muscles were burning. 

He had spent the whole summer day with his best friend, they sat in the heat until they couldn’t take it anymore. They cleaned one another’s houses until their feet were sore. 

Gavin danced and picked every flower they seen. Dan watched with loving eyes as he did so. Counting the minutes, savoring how they tasted in his mouth. It was quiet in their small town, as if it knew the plans of the two young boys. 

But no one did, and no one ever would. It was their secret. 

It was just like any other day. They were free, for now, and beautiful so so beautiful. Nothing could ever change that and Gavin promised himself that. Nothing would ever change these feelings he had on the summer days with Dan. Nothing could ever take it away from him. 

\--

Dear Daniel, 

They are drafting again. 

Run. Hide.

I will always love you. 

From, 

Daddy.


	2. Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"After that, Geoff declared a break. So they cut into the only box that had mounds of tape on it and the thick black word ‘FRAGILE’ written all over it. The box contained the entirety of Geoff’s liquor cabinet. The four friends sat around it sipping from a bottle of whiskey until the late hours of the night. Around midnight the guys left Geoff to his own devices."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghosts - Laura Marling (Geoff's song)
> 
> I'M THINKING UPDATES EVERY MONDAY or sooner if I get them finished sooner.

This was it. His bags were packed, walls empty, floor clean (for once). There was nothing left here for him and he was ready to move on. So many things had changed. So many people had been left behind. New Year, New Geoff. No more bullshit. This is where it all began and this is where it was ending. He was moving on. 

His best friend was waiting in the doorway, the man was a ray of sunshine, a life savior in Geoff’s book. But don’t tell him he ever said that. Jack had a bag slung over his shoulder, his head was tilted as he looked at something on his phone. There was a blush lingering on his face, which meant he was probably talking to Caiti. He’d been waiting for Geoff for a while now, just standing in the Texas heat as his friend stood in the middle of an empty apartment. 

He was stuck where he was standing. Not sure what was keeping him there but knowing full well he didn’t want this anymore. He wanted so much to forget about the last four years of his life in the shithole he was surrounded by. Nostalgia was pulling at his bones, suffocating him, memories of empty nights filled with video games and liquor. Too many nights spent hand and hand with Jack teasing him relentlessly. Too many parties that often ended with Geoff hung over the toilet. Then there were nights which brought the acid back to Geoff’s throat. The nights he lay immobile, ribs crushed under the weight of endless depression. The nights only sleep came after whiskey warmed his body unlike anything else in the world could. 

“Geoff.” Jack’s voice could be heard but it felt so far away. “Geoff c’mon Burnie’s waiting with the truck downstairs…” He paused as if he was unsure of his next words. “You gotta leave it behind at some point.”

With trembling hands Geoff nods, a crooked smile gracing his face. He grabs the box in front of him and walks out the apartment without a second glance. 

\--

Miles away on the empty plains of bumfuck nowhere, New York, a funeral is laid out. A silk black casket is being lowered into the ground. A boy dead too soon, ripped from the earths hands and forced into a box that will be buried six feet down. 

And that boy was, Ray Narvaez Jr, as is scrawled in thick lines across the headstone. 

The world around him was vibrating in his eyes, blurred around the edges. He wasn’t sure what was happening, how he could feel like this all at once. His bones were broken, body burning, brain leaking out of his ears. He was watching as the crane finally dropped his dead body in its place, as the only other person beside him was shedding tears. An endless waterfall of sadness. She was broken too, body stitched up, cuts healing far too slowly on her beautiful face. 

Flashes of memories over took his vision, spirit shaking as he saw everything that made his life what it was. Watching himself grow with his mother by his side. As she smiled at him, told him she was proud of him, loved him even when he came to her crying about the boy he’d fallen in love with. He watched defenselessly as her sun and stars was taken from her. Blinding lights searing into the back of his skull, and then nothing for hours. Nothing. 

\--

When Geoff was little he lived in a big house, with windows ceiling to floor, the doors curved at the top. It was quaint and everything his mother ever dreamed of. For years she  
talked of a beautiful home, with white walls and high windows. And so his father gave it to her, three floors of open area lined with rosewood flooring. Beautiful hues of purples and blues all over the house. Granite on every counter top. 

His mother was as beautiful as the house, maybe even more so. She had kind blue eyes that told stories. She had frail fingers and milky skin. There were faint freckles under her eyes and blush always on her cheeks. She was soft and could bring anyone to their knees. Her voice was that of beauty and no one really knew where she got it from but glad it was there. 

His father was a different story. He was a hardened man, kept to himself, quiet. He was intelligent and graduated at the top of his class. He was instantly put into the family business and was successful his whole life. He knew nothing of losing, giving or kindness until he fell in love with Amelia. Then he gave her and his children everything. 

They were spoiled with anything they needed. Though they didn’t need much. Geoff’s mother was constantly taking care of anyone who needed it, she took in strays of animal and human kind. Geoff knew every homeless person in his town. They fed and clothed them every winter. Gave any spare cash they had, Geoff and his older sister often worked in the soup kitchens downtown. The family was always paraded around galas and banquets, showing off their beautiful and successful family. Thanked for all the work Amelia did with those in need. 

Little did they know their youngest son was struggling with far more than just the homeless. 

\--

“Geoff this place is amazing! It’s fucking beautiful.” 

“How the fuck did you land this?” 

“Who knew the drunk would have such good taste.” 

“I’m not ‘the drunk’…I refuse to be the drunk.” Geoff grumbles as he sets down the first box in his new house. 

It wasn’t quite home yet, it wouldn’t be for a while. But he was determined to change that. To make this the place where he grew, where he was happy. He needed that more than  
he cared to admit. The house wasn’t really all that, it was a small cottage on the edge of town. Red bricked and high ceilings. Right through the door was a kitchen with a long bar wrapping around it. It was far more updated than the rest of the house but Geoff was okay with that, the kitchen was the most important room in the house. 

There were woods beside the house, they weren’t thick but just enough that he had some privacy between him and his neighbors. The living room had large, thick glassed, doors which opened into a grassy backyard with a deck. The second floor was open at the top of the stairs, showing off three doors, two of which were bedrooms. Then in the middle of those rooms was a ghastly bathroom with ugly orange walls and nasty porcelain… but Geoff could fix that. 

“It’s seriously great Geoff, I’m so happy for you.” Burnie’s voice was closer now, he was standing beside Geoff. Staring up the stairs at the point Geoff’s eyes were trained on. 

“Yeah no more mattress on the floor apartment.” Gus is laughing as he wonders around the kitchen looking over the fake marble on sides of the in kitchen bar.

“I’m still going to have a mattress on the floor for a while Gus.” Geoff finally looked at his friend, a playful smirk on his face. “I just upgraded the space.” He laughed this time. 

“Let’s get the rest of this shit in there…and then we drink!” He raised his fist into the air as he walked out the front door. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent moving Geoff’s tiny apartment into the large space. There was a severe lack of boxes and bags to move. Burnie pointed out he never knew someone to live with such a little amount of things. The hardest part was moving the furniture. The simple, yet super broken, couch took the four of them to move it. Among other things: like the full sized mattress that had to be pushed up the steps, and the large desk that nearly broke Gus’s back. 

After that, Geoff declared a break. So they cut into the only box that had mounds of tape on it and the thick black word **‘FRAGILE'** written all over it. The box contained the entirety of Geoff’s liquor cabinet. The four friends sat around it sipping from a bottle of whiskey until the late hours of the night. Around midnight the guys left Geoff to his own devices. 

\--

It was too weird. 

Having been alone for so long it was hard to have someone roaming his home. Instead of the smell of moth balls, and piles of dust over every surface, the house felt fresh. Lights were turned on every morning, someone else’s scent invading the even the deepest corners of the house. It was beginning to be too much. Michael’s spirit was dying to come out and play, but after what happened last time he wasn’t sure it was safe to. He had no idea the kind of people who were here, he wasn’t looking to scare anyone. But after five years of being stuck in a shitty house with nothing to do and no one to talk to but himself. Eventually he needed to get out. 

Michael couldn’t stand the itching feeling of curiosity to see who he was sharing a house with now. The last family were the crazy kind of people. Two kids who had nothing better to do than run around and scream. It made Michael’s head want to split open. Eventually they complained so much about someone else being in the house that the two worn down parents had to get out. 

Now he’d been alone for three years and the house was wilting. 

Until someone started to walk through it, until someone finally took notice to its beauty and instantly fell in love with it. Michael was sure they wouldn’t love it so much after they found out they had another roommate, but he couldn’t be blamed for that. 

Could he? 

He wasn’t really sure but it didn’t matter because now he found himself drifting along the second story, eyes trained heavily on the body that was below, sitting in the middle of the living room, moving his body each time his character had to dodge in halo. He had a silly mustache and horrible posture but Michael was immediately drawn to him. 

Something was calling him, like a beacon on his head that just drew Michael’s body closer to him. So naturally, he moved closer, taking the steps slowly until finally he was standing nearly two feet from him. 

Michael had been dead for a long time, but he’d never been around other ghosts, or living people who could see him. He didn’t know the tricks of the trade, didn’t know that he smelt. He knew he looked kind of weird, the kids that lived here before would tell him all the time that his skin was _‘super gross’_. 

That worry flew out the window the moment the feeling of this human, near him, fogged his brain. 

\--

Boxes cluttered every corner of the living room, but Geoff’s t.v was sat perfectly in the middle hooked up to his favorite console. He had two fingers of whiskey and halo loaded. He was well into the game, getting his ass kicked in, when he smelled it. 

The over baring scent of burning…is that _flesh_? 

He paused his game and put the back of his hand to his nose. Eyes flicking around the living room, searching for where the stench might be coming from. He sighed heavily. He’d been here for three days and this is how he was treated. Ghosts? 

“You fuck right off.” His voice broke the silence, heavy eyes trained right on Michael though he didn’t know he was there. 

Geoff made it a point to groan loudly and pinch his nose. He was acting so like a child but he didn’t care. He wasn’t in the mood for this. He never really was. He couldn’t stand the stupid siren call that pulled all spirits to him. There was nothing fun or gracious about this. His ability was more like a curse that would never be broken and it was unfair.

The smell grew closer and Geoff couldn’t help but retch, his eyes began to water, his body wanted to reject the feeling but it was intrusive. Pin pricks took over his nerves and a cold sweat broke out on his skin. The feeling of heat was all over him, burning his chest and his arms. He scrambled across the floor a little. 

“Dude, you stink… Fuck.”

**Author's Note:**

> Read a little bit about the characters and ghost in general here > http://superkaliii.tumblr.com/post/109088332523/i-may-or-may-not-have-rambled-like-a-whole-shit


End file.
